As the population continues to age an increasingly large number of these adults will suffer from age, stress, systemic, or surgically induced full or partial loss of bladder control. In the medical community, this condition is normally called “incontinence.”
Numerous types of products—usually made from various woven or nonwoven materials—designed to help absorb and contain the urine after a loss of control episode (called an “insult”) are widely available in commerce from many different manufacturers. Such types of incontinence products include: underpads to be placed beneath a bedridden patient; seat pads for wheelchair use; adult and infant diapers; various types of pants with built-in absorbent pads; and small shields or insert pads of a type used by ambulatory, light-incontinent patients. Typically shields and pads are placed inside an undergarment and positioned next to the skin.
Incontinence products are produced in both durable (meaning they can be washed and reused numerous times before throwing away) and disposable forms (meaning after a single use they must be thrown away).
Durable incontinence products are generally made from various woven fabrics, such as cotton, usually placed in several layers between a fluid barrier and a woven top cover such as birds-eye cotton. Because they incorporate woven-type fabrics they may be washed multiple times before wearing out, and having to be thrown away. However these types of products generally suffer from a lack of liquid holding capacity, may be expensive, can bunch up causing pressure points against the skin, or often leak causing discomfort for the user and soiling of the bed linens.
Disposable incontinence products are manufactured from many types of materials, and usually incorporate some form of fluid barrier to the outside. The absorbent materials used can include, for example, stacked sheets of newsprint paper, or tissue. Other types of materials used to make disposable incontinence products include various blends of fibers (for example, a 50/50 blend of cotton and polyester) formed into an entangled nonwoven web/matrix structure. These nonwoven structures may be made from one, or several, types of available production methods such as air laid, spunbond, needlepunched or hydroentangled. Whatever the form of nonwoven construction used, later, with dies or other forming techniques, these structures may be stamped, cut, bonded, sewn and/or shaped into various incontinence products.
Many of the disposable incontinence products available today incorporate a superabsorbent powder (SAP) made of polyacrylic acid, or starch, placed in the core of the structure to assist with capturing and holding the liquid after an insult. Generally in a powder or pellet form, the SAP, or starch, is inserted, or simply sprinkled, into, or onto, the substrate during conversion into an incontinence product. This is necessary, for without these chemistries disposable incontinence products generally do not hold liquids in sufficient quantities to be useful, or they leak, rendering the product unusable.
However there are several problems with the use of a SAP, or starch, in disposable incontinence products. For one, these chemicals are tenacious, and aggressively hold liquids in a gel-like state that will not easily give up liquid after an insult. Because of this, when the resulting product is disposed of in a landfill it may for many years maintain the liquid in its gel-state possibly causing the accidental spread of bacteria, odors, or result in downstream environmental problems. And because of the natural affinity of SAPs and starches to water, these types of incontinence products are inherently disposable as they cannot be washed and reused.
An additional problem with the incorporation of super absorbent chemistries into an incontinence products is when saturated with fluid (such as after an insult), the powders or pellets (now a gel) will swell in an irregular fashion, causing lumps to form within the structure. In some cases this may result in simple irritation and discomfort for the user. In other instances it may lead to pressure being applied to the skin in a manner that can result in the formation of lesions, or entryways, allowing the passage of dangerous bacteria into, or through, the epidermis causing infection and other health-related difficulties.
A further problem with disposable-type incontinence products is there is currently no satisfactory way for an ambulatory light-incontinent patient, for example, to readily carry a supply of unused shields or insert pads, nor is there a convenient way to carry ones that have been soiled for later disposal. Additionally, with currently available incontinent products there is often a concern by the user that when in a public place others may detect the odor of an insult, or can physically see, because of bulkiness, or even tell from hearing the rustle of paper or fabrics, that the patient is wearing a form of incontinence product.
Although these problems apply to both men and women, men generally do not benefit from the availability of shields and insert pads designed especially for their needs, or they are forced to rely on the use of disposable shields or pads designed originally as feminine hygiene products. Correspondingly men often suffer discomfort and embarrassment from having to use such products, and rather than enjoying a useful, productive life, these types of incontinent individuals will not venture from their residences.
And last, disposable insert shields and pads of the types now generally available are expensive, and for individuals on a limited budget, the cost of replacing these disposable products numerous times during a single day may pose an unnecessary financial burden. Recognizing that the currently available durable and disposable incontinence products, especially shields and insert pads for light incontinence, are inherently defective and offer numerous opportunities for improvement, the invention embodied herein provides the individual who is incontinent with a more comfortable, efficient, better performing, lower cost solution to the control of liquids than he, or she, is now able to acquire, while providing improved personal dignity and a better quality of life.